NEW SANCTIONS SPARK ‘DEATH TO AMERICA’ RALLY

AMMAN Thousands of Iranians chanted “death to America” at a rally in Tehran Sunday as the country’s leaders remained defiant in the last hours before fresh U.S. sanctions came into force.

Students at the government-organized march in the capital burned pictures of President Donald Trump and set alight the U.S. flag to mark the seizure of the American embassy during the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Anti-U.S. rhetoric is familiar from the Iranian government, but relations between the two countries are at a particular low over the Trump administration’s hard line on Tehran’s nuclear and military ambitions.

After unilaterally pulling out of the deal intended to curb Iran’s nuclear capability earlier this year, the White House said it would reapply sanctions on the country’s energy, financial and shipping sectors.

Iranian leaders have remained defiant over the move, and have appeared confident Iran can absorb the impact of reduced oil sales.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei took to Twitter on Saturday to say Trump had “disgraced the remnant of America’s prestige and that of liberal democracy.”

The rhetoric was in stark contrast to concerns voiced by Iranians, fearful over the impact of further sanctions on an already pressured economy.